Nature's bounty

This is the time of year when there are wild blackberries all along the sides of the road in our neighborhood. One quick circuit of less than a mile around our house and I can collect enough blackberries to make a small crumble. I love the idea of leaving the house to go for a walk and coming back with food that I can use to make something delicious. But then I always think of something Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his great essay about Henry David Thoreau in the August 1862 issue of The Atlantic, not long after Thoreau's death. Emerson noted that while Thoreau was always ready to lead a search for wild huckleberries, chestnuts, or grapes, he didn't otherwise put his genius to use for "great enterprise" or "command":

I cannot help counting it a fault in him that he had no ambition. Wanting this, instead of engineering for all America, he was the captain of a huckleberry-party.

I don't have much ambition either, but it does sound like fun to be the "captain of a huckleberry-party." Someday you'll have to join my party and come blackberry picking with me.

Wild Blackberry Crumble

Adapted from Flavor Flours (2014) by Alice Medrich

You can substitute 63 grams (½ cup) all-purpose flour for the white rice and oat flours.

Topping
50 grams Thai white rice flour (½ cup); or white rice flour (⅓ cup) (see note)
13 grams (2 tablespoons) oat flour (see note)
⅛ teaspoon salt
50 grams (½ cup) finely chopped pecans or walnuts; or 43 grams (½ cup) sliced raw almonds
100 grams (½ cup) light brown sugar
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
43 grams (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

Fruit
350 grams (2½ cups) wild blackberries (substitute pitted cherries or fresh or still frozen blueberries, huckleberries, or a combination)
38 grams (3 tablespoons) sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ tablespoon white rice flour; or all-purpose flour

  1. Place the oven racks in the middle two positions. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a quarter sheet pan (a 13-by-9-inch baking sheet—use a regular half sheet pan if you don't have a smaller one) with parchment paper.
  2. For the topping: In a small bowl, stir together all of the topping ingredients until well combined and evenly moistened. Transfer the mixture to the sheet pan and spread it out to an even ½-inch thickness. Bake on the upper rack until well browned, 8–10 minutes. Set aside.
  3. For the fruit: While the topping is baking, gently stir the blackberries, sugar, lemon juice, and flour together in a 1-quart baking dish. (I used a 9-by-5½-inch Le Creuset stoneware dish I picked up dirt cheap at Marshall's.) Place on the lower rack. Bake for 10 minutes, stir, and bake until the juices are bubbling up around the fruit, about 10 more minutes.
  4. When the blackberries are ready, remove the baking dish to a cooling rack. Use a spatula to transfer large pieces of the topping to cover the blackberries as much as possible. Cool for at least 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature as is or with vanilla ice cream. Serves 3 or 4. (You can double the recipe and make it in a 2-quart baking dish.)